The present invention relates to a mud guard for a vehicular wheel and to the improved injection molding process for producing the mud guard or any similar article of manufacture. More particularly, the invention relates to a mud guard fastened to the body of a vehicle directly behind a road wheel. In such an application, it is desirable to have the mud guard formed of a material which is flexible, especially under cold weather conditions, to deflect under the impact imparted by curbs and parking blocks without breaking. A mud guard in which uniformly soft and flexible, however, presents a certain problem of fit and finish at its upper body attachment point. Typically this soft material tends to "walk" away from the body surface leaving gaps between the mud guard and the vehicle body. It is desirable, therefore, to have the upper portion of the mud guard relatively stiff at the point of attachment to the vehicular body to allow for uniform attractive attachment to the vehicle.
Current practice in the industry achieves the desired stiff upper configuration of a mud guard by the molding of the mud guard around a stiff metal insert in the upper region of the mud guard so that the upper region is rigid and the lower region of the guard is flexible.
Alternatively, a reinforcing metallic element may be attached to the mud guard after the molding process is complete, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,053 (Arenhold), which discloses a vehicle mud guard having a external metal element to reinforced and stiffen the mud guard at the points of mounting to the vehicle body.
Similarly U.S. Pat. No. Des. 241,829 (Podall) discloses a splash guard for motor vehicle which includes a stainless steel reinforced mounting region.
A mud guard molded around an upper steel insert, or to which a metal reinforcement is otherwise attached, presents certain difficulties in attachment. Often, two-way foam-backed adhesive tape is used to fill the gaps and provide adhesive strength. In addition, the weight of the steel-reinforced unit may require rivets, bolts or similar heavy duty attachment to fix the mud guard to the vehicle body. This results in a mud guard which is expensive because of the added expense of a metal reinforcement insert, additional processing costs and attachment components.